[quote:1025aa3872] I do wonder wats the drag co-efficient on the S90 compares to 700/900[/quote:1025aa3872]
.30 or .31 on those cars depending on roof rack or sedan or wagon. Very slick indeed. I would bet with no rear spoiler no roof rack seam weld things and cover up some of the plugs on a V90 and you could acheive .29 or .28 or something. Also tucking the wipers as much below the hood and removing headlight washers and that junk will make it roll through the air better. The 945 has a c/d of .32 from the factory so there isn't a ton of improvement to be had, since most V90 are about .31. The post 90 740 is very similar to the 940, but there is a subtle difference in the slope of the headlights and turn signals and such. This is only slight though so the aerodynamic penalty if there is any must likely be small. The pre 90 740 has a c/d of .39 or something I think. Sedans tend to fare worse like the 944 at .33, but they make up for it in weight savings. Tucking up the exhaust and lowering the car tend to make a pretty big difference, it also lets you get the diff out of the airstream. I think you can mix the parts is various ways, so even though the fenders are different between my car and a 94 960 according to Juha and others you can still mix the parts. THis is evidenced by the S90 bumper fenders blah blah blah with a 740 hood on the bottom of my other post as Juha points out. I actually don't really like the S90 look as much as the euro white 900 look in the first picture. I just want to tuck in those wipers and eliminate the air grille in teh cowl. Makes for a neater look. It seems to me that there is virtually no aerodynamic gain between the pre 95 to post 95 960. Ofcourse the rounded fenders will let the air hug them a little better, but the front spoiler is more show then go. Not to say the S90 front spoiler is bad, but if the 940 is .32 and most S90/V90 are .31 or so then that more rounded spoiler must be pretty moot IMHO. What I am now curious about is this rumor that some 960's got an aluminum hood, but it occurs to me that it may not crumple properly if hit when used in conjunction with 940 fenders. This may also be pretty moot though. A lighter hood would always be nice, just need to know which if any cars they came on. It is alot of work, but iff all I had to do is fake the look by mixin the 940 fenders a-pillars blah blah, with a lighter better looking mroe aerrodynamic hood then I am all game. You may wonder why someone interested in aeroddynamics would buy a volvo, but the fact that the c/d is so low on a 940 atleast for a car that looks like a box and can hold so much stuff it is cool to me. Anyway I would like to hear more for sure.
[edit] about the S90 front spoiler, it may be that though the C/d is about the same/ slightly better, that for the same C/d the S90 generates more downforce then teh 940 or pre 95 960. A spoiler expert or someone whois more nuts about aerodynamics than me will have to answer that.[edit/]
[edit edit] Now that I look at it the S90 front end has slightly more frontal area then the 940/960 and a slightly more pronounced lip on the front which would lead me to think that the down force on an S90 would be greater relative to the drag. [edit edit/]
Sorry for sort of turning this into a performance thread, but who say looks and performance can't mesh a little eh?